Brined Pork Loin with phosphate Experement

[DanMcG]

Last week I picked up a pork loin for some smoked Canadian bacon and thought I'd try a little experiment. I wanted to see what adding phosphate to the brine would do to the finished product as far as aiding in moisture retention.
I cut the loin into four pieces, three would be in my basic brine and one will go into a brine with phosphate added. All four will be pumped with 10% and left in the brine for 4 days.
With a 10% pump this works out to 140 ppm of nitrite.

The basic brine was;
1 Gallon water 3780 grams
Salt 220
Maple syrup 150
Cure #1 95

For the phosphate brine I used the same ratio of ingredients but only made a quart and added 26 grams of Butch & Packers 450s “Brine Pumping Phosphate” this will give me about half the allowable amount of phosphate or 2400 ppm.

After the pump I let them rest a minute, dried them with paper towels and verified the weight was meat plus 10%. then into the brine. Then I repeated the drying and weighing each day to see if there was a difference in intake between the phosphated one and the other three.

After the 5 days they all took in about the same amount of additional brine, but the one with phosphate on the first day took in a two to five more then the basic three, but lost over half of it the next day. If I hadn't weight them twice the first day, I'd say it was a screw up in the weighing, and it still could be, but I won't know till I repeat the the proses.

The big difference was after smoking.
Smoked for approximately 6 hours starting at 130°F and ending up at 200°F until the internal temp's were over 152°

The three in the basic brine lost 5, 6 and 8 percent of their original green weight.
The one in phosphate gained a little over 1 percent, and was noticeably moister.
I need to do a good side by side taste test today to see if the flavor is different. And will add some pick then.
I could also add the spreadsheet (at least I think I can) with the daily logged info, but this post is already sounding to geeky for me.

[NCPaul]

this post is already sounding to geeky for me.

You're among friends.

[wheels]

Thanks Dan. That's interesting and completely different to what I imagined would happen with added phosphate.

Phil

[DanMcG]

Here's some numbers for the geeks out there;


and the day to day numbers.


and for the average foodie, a pic of the finished product

and tried to get one of the moister on top of the phosphate one in the rear but failed....but I still liked the pic;


I'll try to replace it with a better one tomorrow. Todays taste test was also a failure. I started tasting one, then the other , the next thing I know I ate a pound of it but totally forgot to compare them.

[captain wassname]

Dan ;
How much did they weigh after 5 days ?
Sorry I should have asked earlier

Jim

[DanMcG]

The smart guy that I am, I thought I'd make some room on my photo host site and delete a few old pic's. I wonder how many threads I screwed up.

Here's the final weigh in Jim

[wheels]

Wow, those figures amaze me. It's unusual for me to have more than 6 - 8% weight gain at the end of curing even after a 10% injection.

I'd be interested in other people's results (as i'm sure would Jim).

If they're consistent with yours Dan, I'll amend the instructions on the tutorial.

Phil

[captain wassname]

Many thanks Dan.
Am I right in thinking the Phosphates lump showed a gain and then a loss while immersed?

Jim

[DanMcG]

Many thanks Dan.
Am I right in thinking the Phosphates lump showed a gain and then a loss while immersed?

Jim

the one piece with phosphate lost weight compared to the other three while in the brine, but overall retained more after the brining and smoke it to 154° F .
Sorry but I'm not sure I answered your question, Jim

[BriCan]

Dan If I may, could you please explain how --- the quote below before I stick my size elevens in my north and south

The big difference was after smoking.
Smoked for approximately 6 hours starting at 130°F and ending up at 200°F until the internal temp's were over 152°

[DanMcG]

Dan If I may, could you please explain how --- the quote below before I stick my size elevens in my north and south

How what? They were different only in the weight gain or loss. also the one with phosphate seemed a bit moister, but no difference in flavor.

[BriCan]

Dan If I may, could you please explain how --- the quote below before I stick my size elevens in my north and south

How what? They were different only in the weight gain or loss. also the one with phosphate seemed a bit moister, but no difference in flavor.

Sorry should have been more specific

Smoked for approximately 6 hours starting at 130°F and ending up at 200°F until the internal temp's were over 152°

I use one of these so it only takes 4 hours at the most and I do an internal of 145°F so there is very little shrinkage.